When Steven Krueger, event organizer for Gold Ribbin' BBQ Fest of Greater Green Bay, first attended a barbecue competition, he was "absolutely amazed" at what he saw.

"It's really something to walk around among the teams and see what their set ups are," said Krueger. "You got people spending $100,000 on their BBQ rig with the chance to win $1,000 at a competition. And the chances are — no matter how good you are — the chances are not great that you're going to take home more money than you spent getting there and your meat and everything else."

Now in its third rendition in as many years, the Gold Ribbin' BBQ Fest is a sanctioned Kansas City Barbecue Society competition but still remains a fundraiser for Golden House that will be held July 11 and 12 at Leicht Memorial Park.

As a KCBS competition, the winner earns a spot in the KC Masterpiece American Royal World Series of Barbecue Invitational and a chance at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue, two of the premiere barbecue competitions in the United States.

Krueger says many of the teams are coming from across Wisconsin and neighboring states and to date 43 teams have paid their entry fees and three more have committed to competing. Some teams like Give It To God out of Louisiana have appeared on shows like "BBQ Pitmasters," others like Quau out of Illinois have won world championships.

Last year's American Royal Reserve Grand Champion (runner up) team, T-Mac Smokin,' has a shorter drive, coming from Appleton and another team with multiple wins already this year, Tim's Full Belli Deli, is coming from Oshkosh.

The head cooks for the teams, Tom McIntosh and Tim Schopp, were set up next to each other at the Grillin' in Grafton competition June 27-28 where they took the top two spots, with Schopp picking up his third Grand Championship.

In a way, McIntosh has himself to blame for the second place finish in Grafton, not because of his barbecue skills but because he was the one who encouraged Schopp to enter a competition.

Schopp said he took second in pork and brisket and fourth overall out of 15 teams at that competition.

"So I was hooked," he said.

The next competition didn't go as well with Schopp finishing 57th out of 58 teams.

"I told the kids I was going to pull over and leave the trailer on the side of the road," said Schopp.

After searching Mixon's website for a phone number, Schopp settled on sending an email asking: what does it take to talk to a warm body?

"About a half hour later my wife said you better take this phone call," said Schopp; it was Mixon.

Mixon told Schopp to enter the Lambs Farm Barn Burner Bar-B-Q in Libertyville, Ill. Schopp looked up the contestant information online while talking with Mixon; the field of 68 teams included world and national champions. Schopp wasn't convinced entering that competition was a good idea, but Mixon insisted, telling Schopp to pick one meat to enter, teams usually enter chicken, ribs, pork and brisket at competitions.

Schopp chose brisket and Mixon gave him recipes and instructions; it was good for fifth place.

"Before I got out of the parking lot I got a text from him, 'now you're coming to my school,'" said Schopp.

Schopp's team traveled to Georgia in January 2012 for a weekend of barbecue education from Mixon.

Since then Tim's Full Belli Deli has been steadily improving including the strong start to this season. He's also been steadily adding expenses forcompeting, starting with a $2,800 smoker from Mixon up to the trailer that is combination camper that sleeps 10 people and prep kitchen.

Schopp's team isn't the only one hauling a huge trailer to the event; many require electric and water hook ups.

"You're basically setting up a campground for a day," said Krueger.

The campground will be setup in a U shape around the main tent where judging takes place. It's one of the changes made in an effort to incorporate the barbecue action into the event.

Circling the tent will be a wide range of smoker styles and team sizes.

McIntosh, whose trailer and team aren't as large as Schopp's, uses a wood pellet smoker that's wrapped in a welding blanket to help maintain even heat levels during the long hours of smoking; he begins his smokes by 9 p.m. the night before judging.

Meanwhile, Schopp — who routinely has a team of eight, mostly family members — gets some shut eye before rising at 3:30 a.m. He downs a couple cups of coffee then at exactly 4 a.m. dumps in 20 pounds of charcoal and a whole quart of Kingsford lighter fluid into the smoker; at 4:45 he adds four logs of hickory; at 5 a.m. his son Adam throws on four pork butts and two briskets.

Both competitors will have all their meats ready for judging at the same time — temperature is the difference. McIntosh smokes at 235 degrees Fahrenheit while Schopp cooks at 350 degrees because his smoker uses water, about 35 gallons, which steams and keeps the meats from drying out.

Cooking methods and times vary by teams, but not prep time.

"The preparation before it even gets put on the smoker is probably as important as the cook itself," said Becky McIntosh, Tom's wife and teammate.

Both Schopp and McIntosh estimate they spend at least 20 hours preparing for a competition during the week.

McIntosh trims chicken pieces for two and a half hours before it hits his smoker because meat is judged for appearance and achieving uniform size helps.

On a side note: When Becky asks Tom if he's "taken the kids out of the pool," she's referring to taking the chicken out of the brine — the pieces get exactly four hours in the pool before being rinsed and dried before trimming.

Routines are followed religiously and adjustments to rubs or sauces are rarely more than quarter of a teaspoon of any seasoning.

Schopp only uses Heinz ketchup and French's mustard and always buys the same brands of honey, agave, brown sugar and other supplies. He even uses the same bottled water for all marinades and injections.

"I never veer from it," said Schopp.

Each meat gets its own rubs, injection and sauce. During any competition Schopp uses two quarts of chicken sauce; quart and a half of pork sauce, quart and a half of rib sauce and au jus for the brisket.

The pork gets three rubs, injection and sauce. The order of the rubs is important for Schopp, because the base rub has sugar and the subsequent layers keep that rub from burning or forming a crust.

McIntosh vacuum seals all his rubs and labels them for use in competition. He prepares two briskets, four pork butts, eight racks of ribs in addition to the chicken, which is about 140 pounds of meat. About five pounds is turned in for judging.

Teams at the Gold Ribbin' event can't sell their extra meat due to Brown County regulations but may hand out samples or donate the meat to be used at Golden House and local food pantries. Also, teams are given a pork shoulder to cook as part of the 100KCBS with all the cooked meat going to local pantries.

Even with hundreds of pounds of meat to choose from, both competitors say it's sometimes difficult to find six competition ribs (the judge should be able to easily bite to the bone without the meat falling off) and chicken pieces (the skin needs to remain attached to the meat after a bite).

Regardless if the meat places first or last, the end result is outstanding barbecue.

"One of the things you will hear the guys say who are involved in barbecue competition is the food you taste there — even if it scores poorly with the judges — is still some of the best backyard barbecue you will ever have. You'd be proud to serve it to your family," said Krueger.

About: Watch more than 40 teams put the finishing touches on their meats. Judging begins at noon; winners announced at 3:30 p.m. Kids activites throughout the day. Food for purchase from Bar-B-Q Topia.

• Bean bag toss tournament:

Noon to 3 p.m. Two person teams compete for a cash prize. Advanced registration is required, $50 per team or $100 in pledges for Golden House.

• The team scoring the most combined points in the four meat categories is named Grand Champion for the event. The Grand Champion from The Gold Ribbin' BBQ Fest gains entry into the Beak to Beach Challenge and the KC Masterpiece American Royal World Series of Barbecue. The team also receives a draw for the chance to represent Wisconsin at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue.

LEARN BBQ FROM A PRO

What: Give it God BBQ's Jeff Petkevicius, an accomplished competition cook who has been featured on the show "BBQ Pitmasters," shares some of his secrets of success.